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Daylight Saving and other early birds…

I was driving up Santa Anita Avenue and a church marquee caught my eye. The black plastic lettering spelled out a terse message: “Easter Sunrise Services, March 23, 6:30 a.m.

Now, those early birds in the crowd may be used to doing things in the a.m., but Ive always been a late bloomer. Getting me to a sunrise anything is tough, even though Easter is my favorite time of year.
But now, even Easter itself comes earlier than ever. Easter in March? And it’s not even the last Sunday of the month but the fourth Sunday. Palm Sunday is March 16 — that’s next weekend! I’m just getting over Valentine’s Day, give me a break.

Is it just me, or is everything earlier this year?

At the newspaper, we were excited about California participating in the presidential lottery four months earlier. Instead of June, Californians went to the polls to nominate Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain on Feb. 5. While that was a smart move, it was done because other states pushed up their primaries and caucuses (Iowa and New Hampshire held their earliest contests ever). It was like that schoolyard game where you grab a part of the bat until the one at the top gets to go first.

Michigan and Florida also caught early-bird fever. But after they moved up their primary dates to January against the wishes of the national Democratic Party, the process got sicker and sicker. The Democratic Party said those delegates would not be seated. Now, there’s back-room discussions over a “re-do,” meaning another set of Democratic primary elections in Michigan and Florida. The Republicans also penalized the two states for earlyness but not as severely; they stripped their delegates in half.
Why is everyone in such a hurry?

The press thought Super Tuesday would be the end of the nominating process. Or wished it would. Maybe they had vacation timeshares in Florida or Aruba that were burning holes in their pockets. Or CNN had a long list of has-been celebrities lined up for Larry King to interview.

But end it did not. Hardly. At least not for the Democrats, whose top two candidates are locked in a battle for the nomination that could lead all the way to the Democratic Convention in August.

It’s so rushed that the whole thing reminds me of that Army saying, “hurry up and wait.” We rushed. We got our primary earlier. And now, we wait for the Democratic nominee. We wait for Michigan and Florida, who were so early, they may end up last.

Tomorrow, we go into Daylight Saving Time. Yup, it is early this year. Again, what is the rush? Do we really need that extra hour of daylight in the evening, sooner rather than later? That’s just code for taking away an hour of sleep.

If I was a conspiracy guy, I’d say that the Congress, Howard Dean of the Democratic Party, and the farm lobby got together with the retailers to move everything earlier.

Those retailers are the ones who turned Thanksgiving once a four-day weekend of family time, good meals and well, thankfulness — into one day of “turkey” and three days of shopping. Friday after Thanksgiving is now Black Friday. Its really early Christmas shopping days so people can started “early” on Christmas and get those “early bird” bargains at 4 a.m. What they don’t mention is youre so early for Christmas, you shortchange Thanksgiving.

I used to feel guilty when I heard people had shopped so early they were done with Christmas by Dec. 1. I’m the type who enjoys the holidays (even if the shopping is not done until the last two or three days before Christmas). I don’t get guilty anymore.

The early-birders push us so hard to be early, that we don’t know what to do with the time we save. Usually, that means on the very holiday we so urgently rushed into, we are planning the next one.

About Steve Scauzillo

I love journalism. I've been working in journalism for 32 years. I love communicating and now, that includes writing about environment, transportation and the foothill/Puente Hills communities of Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Walnut and Diamond Bar. I write a couple of columns, one on fridays in Opinion and the other, The Green Way, in the main news section. Send me ideas for stories. Or comments. I was opinion page editor for 12 years so I enjoy a good opinion now and then.